Seven Days, Almost Seven Dogs

Our vet clinic, Companion Pet, North Salem sometimes feels like the only social outing we get.

Saturday morning Da dawg week starts on Saturday. This was going to be a greyt week.

Just like normal, we were first in line at the vets with Adam. Urine showed no bacteria, and blood count for the first time since April topped 50. A greyt week! Woo Hoo. Or at least we thought.

Blender was seven days into her antibiotic for her scunned toe, it was healing quite nicely. A greyt week, woo hoo. At least that is what we thought.

Sunday evening Oneco showed no interest in dinner and had a cough. No breakfast Monday either and so, we were first in line at the vet clinic.

X-rays showed something in her lungs. Her heart sounded a little funky. First guess was congestive heart failure so home we went armed with lasix. 24 hours later, we really didn’t see any improvement and Tuesday morning we were back at the clinic. This time we left her for the day for IV antibiotics thinking that maybe she had pneumonia. We brought her home for the evening with the plan to have her spend the next day on IV antibiotics again.

Tuesday night out of the clear blue, I noticed a lump on Clancy’s right front leg just above his elbow. It was huge, about the size of my fist and I have no idea when it appeared. That gnawing feeling reappeared in the pit of my stomach and I knew there would be two going to the clinic the next day.

I walked in the door and asked Karen if we couldn’t get just one break. She smiled and took the next pack out. It was time for Flocko to play with his ball. Not three minutes later she came in to announce, “Nope, we weren’t getting a break this week, Flocko just broke his toe.”

Fortunately, it popped right back into place when she tried to bandage it. No vet trip for him.

Wednesday morning Oneco went in at 7:30 a.m., I made a mad dash for work and when I went home at noon, I stopped by the clinic to drop Clancy off. Wednesday after work I returned to the clinic to bad news and more bad news.

Oneco was not showing any improvement nor was she showing an interest in food. Not a good sign, the decision would have to be made soon.

Clancy had a needle biopsy and a first look, didn’t look good, but we would know more when the results returned.

Both babies went home for the evening knowing that Oneco’s time would be soon and Clancy was scheduled for surgery on Friday.

Thursday morning Oneco spent a good portion of the night panting. Early the next morning she asked to go out and when she came in, she coughed up blood. At that very moment, we knew that this would be the day our hearts would be broken again.

We had just gotten home from taking Oneco first to the clinic for her final shot and then off to the humane society for a private cremation. Just like always, we turned Blender out and she ran to the back fence. This time she returned on three legs, bleeding like crazy. 4:30 p.m., and it is back to the clinic.

Blender had broken her toenail off at the first joint exposing the bone, surgery was scheduled for the next day. She and Clancy would be sharing the surgical suite.